All posts tagged "Environmental Justice"

January 19, 2012

Minnesotans gathered outside of the Environmental Protection Agency office in Duluth today to thank the agency for issuing strong new mercury pollution safeguards. They presented a large thank you card signed by local Duluthians and a banner made by Girl Scout Troop 12965. In December, the EPA finalized strong public health safeguards to limit mercury and other toxic pollution from coal power plants.

“The Sierra Club, and parents like me across Minnesota, applaud the President and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson for their courage and resolve in protecting Minnesota families – particularly women and children – from this dangerous toxin and for standing up to polluters’ attempts to weaken this life-saving protection,” said John Doberstein (pictured above), local dad and Sierra Club member.

Mercury is a dangerous brain poison that poses a particular threat to prenatal babies and young children. Exposure in the bloodstreams of pregnant and nursing women can result in birth defects like learning disabilities, lowered IQ, deafness, blindness and cerebral palsy.“There are many coal plants across Minnesota that release dangerous levels of mercury,” said Kate Mensing (pictured above), University of Minnesota-Duluth student. “We thank President Obama and the EPA for the peace of mind that now these plants will not polluting our water and air with this dangerous poison anymore.”

January 18, 2012

Sierra Club and a coalition of groups are reporting that Monday's 6th Annual MLK Day Clean-Up of Pope Branch Park in the Ward 7 neighborhood of Washington, DC, was a great success.

Irv Sheffey, Sierra Club Environmental Justice Associate Field Organizer in DC, (pictured below in the center) says more than 80 volunteers turned out to remove trash and debris from the park and surrounding neighborhood - and they removed more than 6,000 pounds of trash. He's pleased with how popular and effective the clean-up has become."Each year we see more and more improvement in the cleanliness of the park and I attribute it to the quality of care demonstrated at (the MLK Day event) and one we hold in the spring," Irv says. "The community and the river are the direct beneficiaries of that effort." The Pope Branch Creek near the park is a tributary of the Anacostia River.

Irv says he's also happy at how many more volunteers turn out at every clean-up event, despite cold weather or distance for them to the neighborhood.

"These were 82 volunteers from all around the neighborhood, city, and region. I'm always amazed at the volunteers who come out to help in polishing this little gem of a park in southeast (DC). These are people, some coming from afar, who could have chosen to be home, spending time with their families, watching TV, and generally keeping warm. They chose to be out in our community making a difference in the spirit of Dr. King, proving his legacy lives on."

"Forest Lake is the closest Navajo Chapter to the Kayenta and Black Mesa mines," says Sierra Club organizer Andy Bessler, below left, who helped put together the forum. "Over 80 families live within Peabody's leasehold, where regular blasting pollutes the air, toxic water pollutes springs and washes, and groundwater pumping depletes the local aquifer."

Black Mesa residents had requested an update on what the Sierra Club and other groups are doing in response to Peabody's request for a mine permit renewal on Black Mesa, as well as expected EPA action to clean up the Navajo Generating Station, below right, near Page, Arizona.

Thanks to the work of the Sierra Club, allied groups, and tribal partners, the Black Mesa Mine is currently idle. But the Kayenta Mine, below, continues to send millions of tons of coal to the Navajo Generating Station via an extensive train and conveyer belt system.

Fern Bernally, a board member of Black Mesa United, welcomed everyone to the forum, and Black Mesa resident Maria Gladue translated from English to Navajo throughout the day for the many elders present who spoke only Navajo. That's Gladue, below, talking about the Sierra Club Beyond Coal Campaign's recent public service ad highlighting the adverse impacts of coal power on public health.

December 19, 2011

On December 19, the Sierra Club Foundation announced that Juan Martinez, above, has become the newest member of its Board of Directors. At 27, the native of South-Central Los Angeles becomes the youngest member of the Foundation's board.

"It's an honor to be part of an organization where I've gone from being a participant to now sitting on the board," Martinez says. "The Sierra Club deals with environmental issues, but ultimately these are human issues. The environment affects people's lives, and we can improve people's lives for the better. I hope to represent the heartbeat of the environmental movement on the Foundation's board."

Martinez first became involved with the Sierra Club as a participant in Building Bridges to the Outdoors while in high school in South Central L.A. He worked his way up to the position of youth volunteer coordinator, and went on to join the Sierra Student Coalition's executive committee and helped construct the organization's policy.

"The Sierra Club is a big part of my personal story and a significant part of my life," Martinez says. "So many of my friends and mentors are part of the Club. I feel I can point to almost anyplace in the country and find people who are part of this tribe and the fight to improve the way of life for ourselves and future generations."

"The town hall event drew a diverse crowd," says Sierra Club organizer Chandler Sherman, "from lifelong Sierrans to Prince George's residents who, having never heard of offshore wind energy before, wanted to bring cleaner air and jobs to their community." That's Sherman at left, above, with Maryland State Delegate Aisha Braveboy and fellow Sierra Club organizer Chris Hill.

"Organizing in my communities, communities of color, is key to moving Maryland and our country beyond coal and into clean renewable energy, says Hill. "I'm so pleased to see that this was a true grassroots community-based town hall." Below, new Sierra Club members sign postcards to protect Chesapeake Bay.

December 07, 2011

On December 2, more than 100 volunteers with the Chicago Clean Power campaign converged on City Hall to deliver a wall of photo petitions to Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The photographs in the petition featured children, families, and other Chicagoans holding up signs saying, “I have the right to breathe clean air.” Below, ralliers at a press conference outside City Hall before the photo petition was delivered to the mayor.

The Sierra Club is one of the charter members of the Chicago Clean Power Coalition. For the past three months volunteers have been collecting hundreds of photo petitions on college campuses, at local events, and mainly while canvassing on doorsteps and street corners in the Pilsen and Bridgeport neighborhoods of Southwest Chicago.

Pilsen and the adjacent neighborhood of Little Village are home to the city's two dirtiest power plants: the Fisk and Crawford Generating Stations. The Sierra Club and its allies have waged a multi-year campaign to shutter Fisk and Crawford.

"Today we demanded that the Mayor set retirement dates for the Fisk and Crawford plants by the end of the year," says Sierra Club organizer Christine Nannicelli, below, who played a key role in collecting petition photos and putting the event together.

"It was awesome to see the coalition in action," says Verena Owen, a longtime Illinois Chapter clean leader and now volunteer co-lead of the Beyond Coal Campaign, who attended the rally. "This is what people power looks like."

The Wishbone Hill Mine is a proposed strip mine in the Matanuska Valley, about 5 miles west of downtown Sutton and less than a mile from a residential area. The Sierra Club's Alaska Beyond Coal campaign has been working to keep new coal mines from developing and prevent coal-fired electricity generating projects from coming online.

"More than 200 of the people in attendance were against the mine, wearing 'Say No to Wishbone Hill Coal' t-shirts and stickers and holding up signs," says Sierra Club organizer Emily Fehrenbacher.

"When the meeting was opened up for public testimony, 48 of our people testified with eloquent, values-based, substantive comments, compared to 31 pro-mining people from the Resource Development Council and Usibelli Coal Mine, Inc., who invoked nothing but 'jobs,'" Fehrenbacher says.

"Our main TV station broadcast live from the meeting, and we had a press conference the day before featuring local moms, property owners, a Chickaloon Village Traditional Council Leader, and a local doctor."

"The November 10 rally was a diverse alliance of the environmental and civil rights communities, low-income housing advocates, and Occupy Louisville activists, demanding that LG&E give us a state-of-the-art energy delivery system," says Sierra Club organizer Tom Pearce. "We should be investing in green energy and green jobs." That's Pearce at right below, being interviewed on WLOU Radio.

November 22, 2011

This September marked the Sierra Club’s second annual Serve Outdoors month, and its purpose was to honor those who have served America by cleaning up and protecting the outdoors. The Sierra Club provides veterans with opportunities to go on outdoor adventures, since it is believed that nature can help reduce the stress that hinders Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) recovery. Serve Outdoors provides opportunities for the families of service members to also enjoy the great outdoors. The Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors programs (Building Bridges to the Outdoors, Inner City Outings, Local Outings, and Military Families and Veterans Outdoors), Water Sentinels, and the Sierra Student Coalition all hosted Serve Outdoors events throughout the month of September.

Thousands of people across the country organized events in their own hometowns to help preserve the great outdoors for future generations. Volunteers cleaned up local parks, rivers, and wetlands to show their support for the environment. As part of Great Outdoors America Week, dozens of volunteer activists flew from all across the country to Washington D.C. to participate in briefings and discussions to educate decision makers about the benefits of getting outdoors and how to take action back at home.

The Water Sentinels program engaged people in cleaning up their community’s waterways and parks. Sixteen volunteers tested the water quality at the Verde River in Arizona. They collected samples to determine concentrations of E. coli, arsenic and total nitrogen in the water. For “It’s Our River Day”, in Algonquin, Illinois, 35 volunteers picked up more than 40 pounds of garbage and more than 80 pounds of recyclables along the Fox River and Crystal Creek in Cornish Park. In Missouri, nearly 200 volunteers, about a quarter of which were kids, cleaned up the Niangua River by picking up two tons of trash.

By partnering with local high schools, Chicago Inner City Outings, the Chicago Park District, and Congressman Mike Quigley, 240 volunteers, including 175 kids, went to Montrose Beach in Chicago and removed more than 300 pounds of garbage. The volunteers also mulched the Montrose trails and hosted four nature tours of the endangered dunes habitat on Montrose Beach, and the bird and butterfly sanctuary.

For the first time, Sierra Club’s Mission Outdoors brought a delegation to Washington D.C. to participate in Great Outdoors America Week. One of those delegates was Gwen Miller, a native of Lombard, Illinois, who took her passion for the outdoors even further by coming to Washington D.C. to advocate for the Healthy Kids Outdoors Act. This bill would support state, local, and federal strategies to connect America’s youth with nature, outdoor recreation like camping and hiking, and outdoor service learning programs. “Parents need to allow their kids to run around outside more, and we should also teach more environmental classes in schools. It’s important that people connect with nature, because the greater connection they have to it, the more relevant it will be to conserve our environment,” said Miller.

On September 11th, the Sierra Club's Military Families and Veterans Outdoors program, in partnership with Veterans Expeditions, the American Alpine Club, and Jackson Hole Mountain Guides, pushed up to the summit of the Grand Teton. Standing at 13,775 feet on that day were veterans who had served in our military as far back as 1991. One veteran wrote in a blog post about the event, “Between us, we were missing a leg, a few fingers, had a spinal issue, Post-Traumatic Stress, depression, and all had battled reintegration issues.” The veterans, including a young Air Force Lieutenant and Co-Founder of Veterans Expeditions, Nick Watson, reflected from the top of the mountain where they were when the two planes hit the World Trade Centers in 2001.

November 16, 2011

Hundreds of Virginians and citizens from across the region gathered on November 16 at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., to raise their voices against a proposed mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mine that would destroy Ison Rock Ridge in Wise County, Va.

Morgan was also part of a group that met with EPA Water Division and Region 3 (which includes Virginia) administrators before the rally. "They were genuinely moved by what we had to say," Morgan reports.

Longtime MTR activist and former Sierra Club organizer Adam Wells (below), a Wise County native whose ancestors have lived in the county for generations, was also at the meeting with EPA officials. "I spoke to their hearts and urged them to care about other people and the environment and act immediately," Wells says.

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